Easy Meditation for Beginners

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A List of Tips on How to Meditate for Beginners

Meditation for beginners should be easy and simple. It can help lower stress and improve relations between friends and loved ones. You do not need to be religious to meditate; many people who meditate do not have a religious background. Perhaps you are interested in meditating but don’t know how to get started. Here are some tips to help you get started

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Meditation for Beginners

You are always successful

There is no such thing as a “good” or “bad” meditation. Any time you sit down to do it, you are successful. It is that simple. It really doesn’t matter if your mind wanders, or if you feel calm and peaceful. Both are “successful.”

Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted

You could find a chair in your house or a place at your local library. Find a quiet place away from the kids and turn off your cell phone.

Get comfortable

Some people will say that you have to sit in a particular way, but all bodies are different. Although lying down may be comfortable, you may find yourself falling asleep while you meditate if you are horizontal on a bed. Really, any position is fine, as long as you find it works for you. You can sit cross-legged in the traditional style, or just sit as you would ordinarily in a chair. As long as you are comfortable, that is what matters.

Decide how long you will sit

A lot of feelings and emotions will be elicited when you meditate. You could feel relaxed, tired, jumpy, or even really sad. The key is to keep feeling everything you feel, and just keep sitting there. If you just sit there, you are always successful. It can be useful to set a timer so you aren’t tempted to look at your watch. Start at two minutes and work up from there.

Now meditate – it is that easy!

Start breathing, and focus on the breath. Feel the air go into your lungs, and then back out. Pick one thing to do while meditating, and do only that.

You can focus on your breathing. You could also count from 1-10 on either your inhalation or exhalation. You could use a mantra (something like “clear mind” on the inhale and “don’t know” on the exhale is a common mantra in Zen Buddhism). You could focus on an object, like looking at a flickering candle or a small statue of your choice.

Do it every day

After one sit, you may wonder what the big deal is; but you have to stick with the meditation. You couldn’t train for a marathon in a day, and you can’t train in meditation in one day either.

It doesn’t matter how short your sit is (although 20-30 minutes is what most people work up to), but doing it at the same time every day is necessary to feel the positive effects.

If you think you don’t have time every day, consider eliminating one TV show a day, or doing it together with your partner as a shared activity. The benefits of meditation for beginners cannot be overstated: you won’t regret it. Good luck!

Five-Minute Meditation

Are you ready to start incorporating a five-minute meditation into your daily routine? It’s not as hard as it might sound, and it doesn’t require you to understand all the principles of meditation. You don’t even have to be into yoga, zen, or other similar disciplines.

The benefit of meditation for social anxiety is the act of quieting your mind.

Do you have trouble understanding what it means to meditate and practice mindfulness?

I admit this has crossed my mind too. It seems like you are supposed to both concentrate but also not concentrate… what exactly does that mean?

An easy way to think about this is the following.

Rather than worry too much about what meditation is, try to spend five minutes not thinking about anything IN THE PAST or anything IN THE FUTURE. What you will find is that leaves only the present.

You’ll also notice that if you tend to have a lot of anxious thoughts running through your head, all of a sudden your mind will go quiet because anxiety tends to focus on what you’ve ALREADY DONE WRONG or what MIGHT GO WRONG.

When you’re left with only thinking about NOW, you’ll start to notice the present. You might notice the feeling of the pillow under your head. The feeling of your breath. Birds chirping. A breeze blowing.

All of a sudden you are meditating, and you didn’t even have to try.

You’ll probably notice your mind trying to pull itself back to thoughts about the PAST and the FUTURE. That’s normal. But notice when it happens and stop it.

Do this 5 minutes every day, and it will start to get easier.

How to Practice Your Easy Five Minute Meditation

1. Find a quiet comfortable spot free of distractions.

2. Set a time to go off in five minutes. You can use a smartphone for this or any other type of timer.

3. Close your eyes.

4. Observe your thoughts. Make an effort not to think about anything in the past or the future. As it happens, stop the thought.

That’s it! The goal is to quiet your mind and enter a state of “being” rather than “thinking.” While it might feel hard at first, over time this will become easier.

Now, I want you to commit to doing this five-minute meditation every day, as part of your routine. Five minutes is not a lot of time, and you might not think it will have many benefits. But, the act of getting into a routine and a habit of mindfulness and meditation is what will help you stick with it through times of anxiety.